Poor Nutrition Means No Weight Loss

Morning everyone! I've been working furiously on new headband styles and lacey undies for weeks. Working from home means always listening to Pandora, 8tracks, Netflix or whatever talk show is on local TV. Have you watched local daytime television lately?

Every show, every show has a weight loss/fitness segment. Every day there's a new workout style or diet recipe. Yesterday they mentioned Dr. Michael Mosley who claims that all you need is 60 seconds a day, three times a week to become "Skinnier and healthier." And everyone is concerned with calories, superfoods, gluten free stuff, and the latest craze, sugar. 

I coach my clients on nutrition before calories. Good nutrition, or what it means to be healthy, means that you're fueling your cells with the proper mix of nutrients so that your bodily processes--like  hormone and blood sugar regulation, metabolism and digestion-- all run smoothly.

These factors can greatly impact your ability to lose weight. For example, a slow metabolism means your body goes into fat-storage mode, burning up muscle for fuel and holding onto that precious tummy pooch. A messed up digestive system is even worse, and can cause a slow metabolism, chronic bloating...read more about that here. Hormones are another big player in the weight loss game. Leptin (a hormone) decreases when you restrict your calories, and tells your thyroid to tell your metabolism to slow down. Read more about leptin here. 

Without proper nutrition, these processes don't run as smoothy as they're meant to. While restricting your calories will cause some temporary weight loss, the weight you lose is water, then muscle, then fat, and if you do achieve any fat loss from calorie restriction your metabolism has become so slow that if you were to start eating normally again, you'd gain it all back instantly. Sound familiar?

If you're lacking in the nutrition department, you most likely have a slow metabolism and a handful of other symptoms; bloating, fatigue, cravings, weak immune system. 

On the flip side, if you're healthy, meaning all of these processes are working smoothly because your cells are getting the proper nutrition, your metabolism could win a race and you shed excess body fat.

If I had a segment on the early show, I'd tell the world this: Stop counting calories and nourish your body. Food is FUEL, but that doesn't mean you can't love what you're eating! I am such a foodie in the nerdiest sense of the word because I love, love eating and cooking (and eating) and all that meant when I changed my eating habits was I had to try harder to find things that I loved to eat.

You NEED to be focusing on realistic portions of the healthiest, most natural foods you can find or afford. Making nutrition a priority means long-term weight loss, improved immune function, and less stress for you because you won't hate your tired, fat body anymore, because you won't be tired and fat anymore.

lol

Grilled chicken, Black beans, leafy green vegetables, complex carbs like whole grains and sweet potatoes and oats, WATER. None of these are expensive. Ditch the stuff that comes in a box with a list of ingredients and stop counting calories, please, because nutrition optimizes fat loss.

And happiness.

Guess what this is? GOOD NUTRITION!

Click here for the recipe.